BRIDGE

BRIDGE is a European Commission initiative which unites Horizon 2020 Smart Grid and Energy Storage Projects to create a structured view of cross-cutting issues which are encountered in the demonstration projects and may constitute an obstacle to innovation.

The BRIDGE process fosters continuous knowledge sharing amongst projects thus allowing them to deliver conclusions and recommendations about the future exploitation of the project results, with a single voice, through four Working Groups (Data Management, Business Models, Regulations, and Customer Engagement) representing the main areas of interest.

The BRIDGE initiative gathers 32 projects, involving 379 organisations from 31 countries, in receipt of a total of €337M of EC funding. There are 26 countries currently hosting BRIDGE project demos or pilots.

The RealValue project is actively involved in the activities of BRIDGE; RealValue participates in all four Working Groups, and Project Director Rowena McCappin acts as rapporteur for the Business Models Working Group.

Data Management WG priorities

Communication Infrastructure, embracing the technical and non-technical aspects of the communication infrastructure needed to exchange data and the related requirements.

Data Handling, including the framework for data exchange and related roles and responsibilities, together with the technical issues supporting the exchange of data in a secure and interoperable manner, and the data analytics techniques for data processing.

Business Models WG priorities

Defining common language and frameworks around business model description and valuation.

Identifying and evaluating existing and new or innovative business models from the project demonstrations or use cases.

The development of a simulation tool allowing for the comparison of the profitability of different business models applicable to smart grids and energy storage solutions is being developed and tested by the Working Group members.